Bruce Bochy Out as Rangers Manager After 3 Years Despite World Series Title

Bruce Bochy will not return as manager of the Texas Rangers after a three-year stint that began with the franchise’s first World Series championship in 2023 before missing the playoffs in both seasons since then.

The Rangers announced Monday night that the team and Bochy mutually agreed to end his managerial tenure. Bochy has been offered a front office role to remain with Texas in an advisory capacity.

The move came a day after the Rangers finished 81-81. That was the first .500 finish for the franchise that began as the Washington Senators in 1961 before moving to Texas in 1972, and a first for Bochy in 28 seasons overall, managing San Diego, San Francisco and Texas.

Bochy was at the end of the three-year contract he got when Chris Young, one of his former pitchers, hired him after the Rangers’ sixth consecutive losing season. Bochy went 249-237 in Texas.

“Bruce Bochy is one of the greatest managers in baseball history, and he will forever hold a place in the hearts of Ranger fans after bringing home the first World Series title in franchise history in 2023,” Young said. “Boch brought class and respect to our club in his return to the dugout and we will always take pride in being part of his Hall of Fame career. We are grateful for everything he has given to the organization over the past few seasons and hopeful he can continue to impact the Rangers for many years to come.”

After turning 70 this season as baseball’s winningest active manager, Bochy’s 2,252 wins rank sixth among all managers — all five ahead of him are in the Hall of Fame. No manager since Casey Stengel won his seventh with the New York Yankees in 1958 has more World Series titles than Bochy’s four, including three in San Francisco.

Bochy had been out of managing for three seasons when hired by Texas. He had stepped away from the Giants at the end of 2019 after 13 seasons and three championships from 2010-14. That followed 12 seasons and a National League pennant with the Padres.

San Francisco, also 81-81 this season, fired second-year manager Bob Melvin on Monday after the Giants missed the playoffs for the fourth year in a row.

The Giants’ president of baseball operations is Buster Posey, the 2012 NL MVP and seven-time All-Star catcher who played all but the last of his 12 MLB seasons with Bochy as his manager.

Among the potential replacements for Bochy in Texas is former Miami Marlins manager Skip Schumaker, who joined the Rangers last November as a senior adviser for baseball operations.

The only manager older than Bochy this season was 73-year-old Ron Washington, but he didn’t manage a game for the Los Angeles Angels after June 19 because of quadruple bypass heart surgery.

Reporting by The Associated Press.